Michael Berry: Situational Racism

Today Michael Berry set up his first caller on a racially charged issue to call him a racist. He admitted as much and then went on to criticize and denigrate the guy.

Fair enough.

Then one of his callers (not Berry himself) pointed out that he is married to “an Indian woman.” This allowed Berry to go with his set piece. It’s his explanation of why no one can legitimately call him a racist.

You see there are “situational racists” who have friends who are black or Hispanic. They mind their manners around these ‘friends’ but if they are in a different social group, they laugh at the racist jokes — you know — going along to get along.

Berry will not play the “I am married to and Indian woman” card, nor will he play the “my boy is African” card because of situational racism.

He has problems with Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton and Skip Gates — especially Gates because all he ever thinks about is BLACK BLACK BLACK according to Berry. Gates and Jackson and Sharpton are all professional black people.

This makes Michael mad.

But Michael cloaks his anger in a high purpose: stirring shit up. He claims to want to make people think about their beliefs about race and question their reactions to his words. Michael is a good man, just looking to enlighten his listeners.

Michael Berry is actually a SELECTIVE racist. He and I are around the same age and when I was in school in Pasadena (a racially pure city at the time) we traveled to his part of south Texas for competitions and such. There was racial tension that my little group of white people couldn’t understand. I’m sure he holds a grudge.

He admitted as much today and has before. He didn’t get into UT law (or as an undergrad from what I can tell) because some Filipino guy’s son got in instead. It is a tired story from white males that I experienced with my own family. Someone with a foreign name, but who was just as American as Michael Berry got not only the company scholarship, but also others just because of his name.

To wrap up: Michael Berry is a selective racist. He looks for callers that “sound” black and then humiliates them after they hang up on him. He doesn’t play the “I’m married to or adopted” card because he knows that is a shit way out. His whole life is about being bitter about term limits and not being able to stomach the fund-raising that is involved in politics. He’s got a bought and paid for gig on a radio station in the 4th largest city in the U.S.A., and yet he still cries the white boy cry of two decades ago.

10 responses to “Michael Berry: Situational Racism”

I agree with you most of the time, but not on this one. I listened to Michael’s show last night. That caller called in for one reason – to cry racism. It sounded to me like Michael just called him out on it rather than setting him up to insult him.

This is exactly what Berry said, after the caller hung up, “Roy, we were looking for a useful idiot to move to the front of the line, we get you on the line, and then you hang up.” And that was after having said to the caller, “calling me a racist is pretty good if we were in second grade.”

It was a complete set up.

I don’t know why the caller called in — he didn’t exactly say — but I do know why Berry put the caller on the air, first up, because Berry explained why he did it.

a lot these “occasional racists” are not racists at all, per se, but classists…they seem not to understand that the unusual series of good fortunes that they have encountered don’t happen to everyone who is of good heart, health and hearth and blame them for their unfortunate socio-economic circumstances. It’s a common republican-classist elitism. he has my pity. and he deserves it, vacuous as he is intellectually.

I think with Berry, it’s sort of like the story Gene Hackman’s character tells in “Mississippi Burning” about his father being poor, but at least he was better than his black neighbor. Then the black neighbor was able to afford a mule. That sent his father around the bend and he killed the mule.

Barack Obama being president has sent Berry around the bend. It also explains why he hates SJL so much. She’s a congresswoman — he couldn’t even run a campaign for mayor.

I had the misfortnue of hearing this scumbag several times over the last couple of weeks. In EVERY case he showed his racist colors within minutes. It is truly embarrasing to hear what some of the cretins that call in have to say, or to see how he treats rational people that call because they are offended by him. I think race baiting is all he has in his arsenal and his arguments are deeply flawed and show low moral character.

Once a few months back, I was thinking about a blog post to write while listening to him. All I could think was “black black blackity black” and sure enough, not long after I thought about it, he said it.

He is as predictable as clockwork.

I feel sorry for his kid. Think about how you would feel if your parents adopted you just as a token. His son is going to grow up one messed up kid.

Michael Berry may or not be a racist – but he ridicules African-Americans on every show I’ve listened to, which is about seven. He’s a complete joke and a complete waste of time. He may not be a racist, but I’m sure that racists love his show.